TWoA: Behind the Coffee-Stained Curtains
by Astrid-Myrna
Summary: Mini-stories/scenes from TWoA that I sometimes write while writing the main narrative. Rated M since TWoA is also rated M.
1. Scene 1: Murksweats

_AN: Hello! The next Leda chapter will be out this weekend, but I was thinking of making a little cache of one-shots/mini moment stories/exercises I write when I'm stuck on a chapter and either won't fit with_ TWOA _or may appear in the main narrative but aren't super spoilery.. Anyway, let me know what you think!_

 _For this story, it is an exercise of weaving in-game dialogue with the story. It's set in the Karasang Wilds, Pandaria, when the red crane Chi-Ji's temple has been raided by sha. Cassandra is in the surviving camp of Chi-Ji's monks when she sees someone she recognizes. Cassandra's 21 and Anduin's 15, but Anduin takes a little brother role in Cassandra's life._

Mud burped under Cassandra's boots as she approached the prince too busy cutting up the dead head of a sickly white serpent to pay attention to anything else. She deepened her voice and growled, "Well, it looks like I've finally found the White Pawn."

Anduin hesitated before stabbing the snake again.

"If you've come to return me to my father," he said briskly, "I must ask that you look around us first—can we truly walk away from these people in their time of need and still claim to represent the Alliance?"

She stepped to his side and dropped her fake voice. "I'm hurt, your highness. I thought you knew me better than that."

He finally looked up at her and his face brightened. "I wasn't expecting to see you so soon again, Cassandra!"

"And I wasn't expecting to see you carving up snakes," she said as she squatted next to him.

He cradled the teal head with faded purple eyes in the palm of his hand. "Murkscales. Take a good look. The river nearby is swarming with these snakes. Their venom causes a condition the locals call 'the murksweats.' Several refugees were bitten as they fled the temple and have already begun to show symptoms: nausea, vomiting, and intense sweating as the body rejects all fluids, causing dehydration and potential death."

"So you've been looking for the anti-venom in the snake itself?"

He nodded. "We are administrating anti-venom as quickly as possible, but we'll need more venom glands."

"I can go grab some more snake glands."

"Don't bother removing the glands yourself-just bring back the whole head."

"That makes my job easier, then. I'll be back in an hour," she said.

"Be careful," he said, his head bent over the snake's head again and his fingers pressing against its gills.

"I will."

She grabbed an empty burlap sack and made her way to the nearby riverbank.

By the hour's end Cassandra returned with six bloody murkscale heads stuffed in the burlap bag. Anduin was still absorbed in his work and didn't seem to notice Cassandra as she approached him.

"Inside the jaw…two inches from the second set of fangs…" he murmured.

"I have one order of murkscale heads for you, your highness."

She plopped the bag next to him. He sheathed his knife and pulled each head out, examining each with a careful eye. Cassandra watched him and smiled to herself, as she could almost hear her father screaming at the sight of Anduin's ragged and ruined clothes. Dewey beads of sweat clung to his dirty head band, his golden hair a greasy cap on his head.

"Thank you, Cassandra," he finally commented. "I knew you'd be hardy enough to handle it. Judging by the sounds coming out of these refugees, I would not wish the murksweats on my worst enemy."

"Is it alright if I help cut out the glands with you?"

"Sure, you can have my—" he stopped when Cassandra pulled out her concealed dagger. "That'll work."

Cassandra sat next to him bow-legged and they both set to work cutting out glands as easily as peeling potatoes.

"How did you end up here?" she asked casually, even though her mind was starting to spin with worry.

His story did not ease her worry. After "escaping" SI:7, he had been captured by the Horde. Cassandra bit her tongue hard as he explained that he managed to escape during the chaos at the Jade Serpent statue. She glanced at him, saw that his body was stiff, his eyes focusing completely on the snake head and his knife as he told her that he hitched a ride to Zhu's Watch and met Mei Barrelbottom.

"She told me of the Red Crane order, and on her advice I accompanied a courier to the temple to seek an audience with Chi-Ji, the Red Crane. I was studying with the disciples there when the sha arrived."

"Sounds like you've had quite the adventure," Cassandra said, but Anduin didn't relax. She could see that he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. "Wouldn't have gotten that in Stormwind, eh?"

He looked at her and laughed, his shoulders slumping with relief. She could hear her mother, her father, Admiral Taylor, and King Varian all yelling at her from the back of her mind, "You let him get away with running away from SI:7 and now this! Do you not care about his well being? Do you not care about Stormwind?" But as she talked to him and listened to him talk about all the things he had been learning in excited and exact detail, she knew she was doing the right thing by supporting him. She just hoped it wouldn't get her in too much trouble.


	2. Scene 2: The Unbroken Circle

_Now while I did include Cassandra in this, the purpose of the exercise is to A) play out a part of the Khadgar legendary ring quest that I enjoyed, B) figure out Cassandra's character more and C) play with sensual language a little bit. Cassandra is still a really murky character for me with possibly the longest story of the twelve. I don't know if I'm going to cover Warlords, I'm not sure if she will be doing Khadgar's legendary ring quest if I do decide to have her survive for Warlords, basically this piece a bit of fluff that I just needed to get out of my head. Set in Khadgar's Tower, Cassandra would be in her mid-twenties._

"Now stand perfectly still," Khadgar said.

Cassandra straightened up, her hand close to her heart as she watched the archmage summon the Elemental Tablets she had spent weeks scouring the Blackrock Foundry for around the crystal dais.

"This magic is extremely reliable and maybe a tiny bit fatal—"

"Fatality is usually an all in or all out sort of thing, isn't it?" she said.

"Hold still, I said," he chided gently.

Cassandra felt her scowl lower to her stomach, but she held still and stayed quiet. Surely her thick, enchanted plate armor could take what magic would come her way. She only hoped her gloved finger that wore the golden "Solium Band of Endurance" (as Khadgar named it) wouldn't disintegrate. Khadgar stood before her, his hands rose up and glittered with magic, purple magic swirling around the tablets.

"I draw my strength from the HEART of Draenor…" he called out, the arcane magic gushing from the tablets and flying in arcs into his hand like shooting stars. It was breathtaking to behold as magic gathered in his hands like a periwinkle moon until it shattered into lightening bolts that struck her heart.

She gazed down at her crumpled, lifeless body before grey fog blanketed it.

"Come, Grommash," said Gul'dan. "Drink."

She looked up and found herself standing in front of Grommosh Hellscream, whose back was turned to Gul'dan. Gul'dan held out a horn with a quaking arm, a thick, goopy drop of its contents rolling onto his gnarled fingers.

Grommash snapped, "I told you…GET. OUT."

Gul'dan skulked closer to Grommash. "They assault your foundry. They murder your allies. Mine is the only away."

Grommosh pivoted on Gul'dan and roared "GO!"

Cassandra's eyes flew open and was greeted by the sight of Khadgar and Cordana looking down at her.

"Hm. It worked," Cordana said with a hint of sacarsm. She got up and went back to her post with a flick of her ornate cloak, leaving Khadgar to unstick the ends of thick yellow cords wrapped around a copper battery from her bare chest.

"I maintain a pair of goblin jumper cables for just such an emergency," he said, sounding far too pleased with himself until he looked down at Cassandra. "Are you well, commander?"

Her eyes blinked slowly as she took shallow breaths of air. He helped her sit up and hold her steady until her lungs remembered how to breathe properly again. She realized that one of them had ripped her undershirt.

"Trying to get a peek?" she said, her fist now holding her shirt together.

His horrified face was priceless. "No, for the cables to work best we needed skin—ah, you're teasing me, aren't you?"

"Sorry, that was mean."

He shook his head and let out a weak chuckle.

" _I_ am very sorry, commander. For a moment I thought we lost you forever," he murmured, his pale blue eyes capturing her bright brown ones.

He held her hand with the blackened ring, cradling her fingers like they were precious jewels.

"This ring will serve you well. I have never seen an artifact so powerful and pure of form," he said, his eyes flitting to the ring before returning to her. "It may be possible to enhance it further but I do not know at what cost. Use your ring wisely!"

She tightened her grasp on his hand and remembered to breathe. "I will."

"Good," he said with a nod. "Can you stand?"

"I think so, if you will help me."

His arm that enveloped Cassandra stiffened as they rose together. Cassandra's head spun for a moment. She soon regained her balance, but she did not want to let go of Khadgar.


End file.
